Some 30.7 million people visited museums and ruins across Turkey in 2017, a 21.3-percent rise from the previous year, said the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) on Sept. 26. The number of museums in Turkey also increased by 21 to reach 438 in 2017, up 5 percent from the previous year. Out of these, 199 museums were affiliated with the Culture and Tourism Ministry, while 239 of them fall under the category of private museums, TÜİK said.

Istanbul, one of the most popular touristic destinations in Turkey, leads with 75 museums56 of them privatefollowed by the capital Ankara and the Aegean province of İzmir with 46 and 27 museums, respectively. The number of nature parks increased by 6.7 percent and the total area of the nature parks increased by 3 percent in 2017 compared to 2016, the institute said.

The number of nature parks reached 223 and their total area increased to 102,409 hectares in 2017, TÜİK said.